posted at 1:14 pm on April 29, 2012 by Howard Portnoy

Conservatives are lucky to have liberals. How would we know what we really think about a given topic if it were not for the tiny horned gremlin that lives on our left shoulder? Who else would provide us with translations of the malicious "code" words we use to conceal our antipathy toward blacks or to explain our intellectual shortcomings?

Luckily, one of those diminutive creatures has spoken out again, explaining the real problem conservatives have with Barack Obama's attempts of late to capitalize on his "coolness." It is fear, Leslie Savan of The Nation writes. It is fear borne of the grim reality that Mitt Romney is "not cool"—fear arising out of the certainty that Obama's return to acting cool (which Savan helpfully points out is really "acting black") will resonate with enough "hip" young voters to catapult him to a second term.

Not surprisingly it all comes down to racism (then again, what doesn't?):

At some level, much of the GOP base still believes that Obama's race is somehow disqualifying for the Oval Office, and they can barely keep themselves from overtly attacking him for it. But the demographics are daunting, and their professionals know it. To see a white guy like Jimmy Fallon acting black—doing a silly Barry White impression with Obama and Roots vocalist Tariq 'Black Thought' Trotter behind him—reinforces the fear among some on the right that the hip youth culture is increasingly a black culture and that it's inexorably taking over.

Rats, nailed us again!

It's an entertaining theory. I will concede that even though the latest polls don't appear to support Savan's claim that Obama is catching fire once again with the youth vote.

But a more troubling fly in the argument's ointment is (a) the lack of evidence that Obama's antics are anything beyond a desperation ploy by a failed politician who is now flailing to gain a toehold in the polls over his opponent and (b) the presumption that Obama is genuinely perceived by voters as cool.

On the latter point, I don't profess to be as knowledgeable on cool as the experts Savan cites. These include Jimmies Fallon and Kimmel and Stephen Colbert. So confident in their ability to identify cool (and presumably to plumb the voting public's coolometer) is Savan that she brazenly includes a link an RNC ad that she says emphasizes "that the 'Preezy' is too busy being cool to be presidential." I dunno: To me, the ad makes a fairly compelling case against Obama, but what do I know?

As for the competing claims that Obama is genuinely cool versus some skinny dweeb pathetically code switching as a last resort, we'll never know which view is right. But we'll know in just a little over six months whether anyone cares.

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